I was listening to my old buddies at the News-Talk 740 KRMG Morning News with Joe Kelley (out of Tulsa) a few days ago when something struck me. I can’t quite reconstruct how the thought occurred, but as is usually the case with me, I got from there to here... somehow.
And such will be the same for you: I will get to the point of this blog post... somehow.
What triggered this mini-epiphany was a Paul Harvey commercial for Walgreens. (I feel a distinct rant coming on about Paul Harvey – and especially his goober son, Paul Harvey, Jr., who is not his dad, never was his dad, can never be his dad... and has absolutely no business being on the radio... but I promise to save that until next time.)
As I remember it, he said Walgreens had been in business for something like 108 years. That flashed me back to memories of some “old-timey” downtown drugstores. Some of these, I remember from being there as a child, teenager, those several years after being a teenager whatever that was, and now as an adult... and there were others, of course, that I’ve seen in pictures.
Let me ask you:
In a traditional “drugstore,” as well as at Walgreens, other than prescription medications, what do they sell?
My take: it’s generally cheap junk at inflated prices.
I do business with a local pharmacy (not a chain). I started doing business there when I had unlimited prescription benefits, wanting to do business with someone downtown, and as a perk, they offered free home delivery. Unfortunately, they only deliver before 5 pm, and I didn’t want to leave my meds outside my house.
I don’t have unlimited benefits any more. My employer, in an effort to cut health care expenses, has reduced everyone’s annual drug benefit to $2,400. That sounds like a lot, but it’s only about half of my annual prescription cost.
Aside: I don’t complain about the price of medications or the eeeeevil pharmaceutical industry, and I’m not going to start now. They developed the meds that I need, and I can either pay the price they ask, or go do the research and invent the drugs myself. Strangely, I don’t have the resources to do this, but they do... so I pay their prices without grumbling about some kind of nutty notion that they are out of control. Nonsense. Similarly, I don’t blame “corporate greed” as having anything to do with my employer’s decision to change the benefit structure — there’s nothing to complain about. Economic circumstances change, and it’s entirely up to them to do as they wish with my compensation. Health and drug insurance are indeed compensation — a privilege, not a right. If I don’t like what they pay me for the work they need me to do, that isn’t their problem.
To my employer’s credit, they implemented a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) program, of which I am a happy participant. The FSA allows me to deduct money from my paycheck, before taxes, which goes into a special account that I can only use for medical expenses... doctor, dentist, prescriptions, and even over-the-counter medicine. Crazy, but cool. A nice twist to the plan is that since you have to decide how much to deduct from each check over the entire year, so you can actually claim reimbursements against money you haven’t even deposited yet. Spiffy. And, I’m paying medical expenses tax-free, without having to document and itemize them on my taxes. (Yes, this is legal.)
Depending on your entitlement mentality or lack thereof, you may object: “wait – now you have to spend your money!” Guess what – the increased premiums they would have had to pay, the premiums that they still pay, the medical insurance they still buy, the life insurance, the dental and vision insurance they still provide, “their half” of the Social Security tax — all of that is my money, too. If my employer didn’t have to fork over those funds to someone, they could pay me more... after all, 100% of my paycheck plus 100% of those ancillary benefits are all money spent that is just as real to my employer, and they wouldn’t have to pay any of it if they didn’t have me working for them.
But with the economics of my prescription benefits changed, I decided I needed to price-shop (since, after all, I’m spending “my” money now, ha ha ha. Not really any different than before, but that is, of course, what it feels like).
Checking “my neighborhood” Wal-Mart and Walgreens, I was shocked and amazed that the local guys are not only cheaper – and I have absolutely no idea how this can be – they have a price match deal against any other pharmacy in the city. Sweet. Ironically, I’ve never had to invoke it — they’re always less expensive.
But back to the drugstore (and back on topic, maybe?) something I’ve always noticed is that they have all kinds of crazy stuff in there, including a lot of specialty snacks, jelly, hot sauce, root beer... it’s really a limitless list of... uh... well... how to say it nicely... it’s “crap.”
I always asked myself, “who buys this crap?” But the answer has become more readily apparent as I find myself waiting in line at the cash register, curious about how these products might taste. Their efforts to take even more of my money are almost successful.
Thinking of the layout of Walgreens (prompted by the Paul Harvey ad, as you might remember from the beginning of this post)... and, along the lines of the fact that they had been in business for a long, long time... and then my local pharmacy... and then virtually every local pharmacy I remember as a kid (they all seemed really ancient places), it seems they all have similar things that nobody needs (not to mention the ironic cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and tobacco).
Based on this, I have a question for you:
Where is the actual pharmacy typically located in the typical drugstore?
It’s in the back.
You think about it. I’m right.
Why is this?
It would seem more convenient if it were at the front. After all, that’s what I’m there to do – pick up my prescriptions.
Did your light bulb just kick on?
I talked to my friendly neighborhood pharmacy tech. I call her “the workhorse” because it seems like she’s always there, always friendly, and always helpful. Good customer service. I asked her the same question.
“Well,” she said, “I never really thought about it... it could be because some medications need to be kept away from the sunlight and heat that they might be exposed to if they were near the front.”
Wow... that was almost convincing. I can at least tell she has a scientific mind, and must have been paying attention at pharmacy tech school. No wonder I like her.
“Any other thoughts?” I asked.
“It also would make it harder for someone to just walk in and take some of the drugs that might be particularly appealing to thieves.”
Another good one. Still, it’s not the one I had in mind.
“Also, though,” she said after a moment, appearing to notice that I wasn’t satisfied with those theories, “you have to walk past all of this ... stuff ... to get back here.”
Bingo!
You have to walk past all of that unusual crap-for-sale to get to the pharmacy and back to the front door. Naturally, they don’t take your money at the pharmacy counter... they want you to take a stroll past all of that other merchandise, get your pills, and then stroll back past it just one more time. More money spent at the drug store.
In a town where I once lived, before the popularity of “Visa debit cards,” back in the day when you could still write something called a “check” (as historians now refer to them) at local merchants, some gas stations began offering the original version of “pay at the pump” — they built a kiosk outside, in the middle of all the gas pumps, where you could pay for your gas without the hassle of going into the convenience store. That idea must have come from a guy with a marketing degree or something... because it didn’t take them too long to realize — duh — that it would kill their junk food revenues from inside the convenience store. It wasn’t long before they tore down the kiosks, paved over the spots where they once stood, and you had to pay inside again.
Time changes all, and now, at least where I live, you have to pay at the pump, or at least go inside with your cash before they will start the pump for you. I wonder why this could be... perhaps the difference between $16.00 to fill up your car and $64.00 to fill up your car has some kind of impact on the number of drive-offs. Thank you to the liberals, environmentalist wackos, communists, socialists, and warmed-over hippies (wait... those labels all pretty much apply to the same noisy minority) who have prevented the oil companies from tapping vast quantities of our natural resources.
Yes, it’s not lost on me that at Walgreens, you can pay at the pharmacy. But you still have to walk past the crap.
It’s food for thought: accident, or on purpose? Tradition, or cleverness?
The only things I know for sure:- It’s not George Bush’s fault
- It’s not Dick Cheney’s fault
- It wasn’t Karl Rove’s idea (and I will back him up on that).
- Ronnie Earle is planning to indict Tom DeLay for it.
- It is not related to the “New World Order”
- The Trilateral Commission was probably not even consulted.
- The international bankers were not involved.
- Tim LaHaye has never mentioned it. (He’s an idiot, anyway.)
- Prescription drug jokes involving Rush Limbaugh are not funny, so don’t even think about me making one here.
- If B. Hussein Obama hears about it, he will proclaim it a “crisis,” but just like everything else he panders about, he won’t actually do anything “helpful” except possibly raise taxes.
- I prefer John McCain to Obama, primarily because he will do less harm to the nation, since there’s zero chance that either of them will improve anything.
- I’m virtually certain John McCain wears women’s underwear and can do the splits without any trouble, because there’s nothing in the way “down there.”
- The ½-Hour News Hour was a fantastic show, and its cancellation was a tragic loss.
- Cleverness or tradition — or some of each — who cares?! It just crossed my mind.
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